Patch and writing by Susan Crane, a friend of mine who lives at Jonah House (see patch directly above this one for more on Jonah House)

Dear Sisters,

The panel for the patchwork quilt that I drew is about people making a peaceful world.  The people are hammering a sword into a plow.  They are thinking that we need to disarm our hearts, and our weapons.

The prophet Isaiah had a vision of a world where people did not kill other people in war.  “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they train for war anymore.”

When money is used on weapons, it can’t be used to take care of our children, to build schools, provide medical care, build homes or grow food.  If we build a tractor, it can help grow food for many people for many years.  But if we build a tank, it can only be used to kill others.  It does nothing to help us.

My faith teaches that we are not to kill others: Jesus teaches us to love each other as brother and sister.  Certainly that means: no war, no weapons, no killing.

Many of us in North America (and elsewhere) have gone up to weapons and begun to disarm them by hammering on them with regular household hammers.  Someday I hope that all the mothers in the world will tell their sons not to fight.  I hope that we will take our sons away from the battlefields, and together we will hammer all the modern day swords into plows.  Until that time, we continue to disarm weapons here and there, living in and out of prison.

Ellos convertirán sus espadas en arados, y sus lanzas en hoces.  Ningún pueblo volverá a tomar las armas contra otro ni a recibir instrucción para la guerra.

                        Isaias 2:4

Paz…

    Susan Crane